You have the talents and the willingness to advance your skills further, and now you are ready to start your research on schools that would better fit your needs and facilitate your academic journey. And you most probably like Switzerland and are thinking of studying there; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this. So, if you have not started your selection process yet, we are here to help.
Sometimes, set criteria determine one or another school to be considered in the group of “bests.” We have taken into account what would enable you to achieve your potential artistically and narrowed down the eight best art schools in Switzerland to assist you in making the right decision.
University of Geneva
HEAD (Haute école d’art et de design – Geneva University of Art and Design) is one of Switzerland’s most important art and design teaching institutions, located in the center of Geneva. Visual Arts, Cinema, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Fashion and Accessory Design, and Media Design are among the high-level Bachelor and Master courses offered.
The University of Geneva offers workshops conducted by international artists and designers as well as courses, atelier projects, seminars, and commissioned work that contribute to the dynamics of a teaching environment designed as a space for personal and societal responsibility.
University of Zurich
The ZHdK (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) or the University of Arts in Zurich is one of Europe’s largest arts universities, with over 2100 students in both programs: Bachelor and Masters. Some of the classes offered are designing, dancing, art education, film, theater, fine arts, music, and interdisciplinary studies enabling you to learn more than one branch of studies, among many programs offered by the University of Zurich.
Fine Arts is a Bachelor’s degree program that can help you build your individual artistic work and lay the foundation for a career path in the Arts. Painting and drawing, doing performances, learning about photography, film, editing videos, installation, sculpture, and digital art are just a few of the mediums included in the program. And you can specialize in your primary subject, depending on your interests.
Besides Bachelors, the University of Zurich offers a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Fine Arts. The Master of Fine Arts program allows you to network, acquire an audience, increase your knowledge and practical skills, and discuss and refine your artistic practice’s focus. The program aims to develop individuals capable of taking on leadership roles in the arts, the creative and cultural industries, cultural institutions, and universities.
University of Basel
The University of Basel has a global reputation for its outstanding research and teaching accomplishments. The Institution of Basel, founded in 1460, is Switzerland’s oldest university, with a 550-year track record of success.
This university offers a wide variety of high-quality educational possibilities that attracts students from all over the world, providing them with excellent study circumstances while they pursue their Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. degrees.
The Basel University includes seven faculties that span a wide range of academic subjects, including here the school of Arts and Design that offers top quality services on the field. This Bachelor’s degree is designed to provide students with a broad set of skills that will serve as a basis for teaching Art and Design. During your six-semester BA in Art and Design Education, you will study art, culture, design, technology, and communicating in both practical and theoretical terms.
The courses will help you develop your personal design style, technical and artisanal abilities, and broad theoretical understanding of Art and Design through many mediums. The center of attention in the BA program is on the excellence of the generated items as well as the design process itself, whether it be in seminars, studios, ateliers, or the classroom.
University of Bern
In Bern, you can find the Bern University of the Arts, offering various programs. You can find 11 study programs here: Art Education, Conservation, Fine Arts, Jazz, Literary Writing, Multimedia Production, Music and Movement, Music Classical, Sound Arts, Theater and Visual Communication. If you are interested in Art Education, this program educates students about the fundamental concepts of Art, Media, and Design as it helps them to develop their profile further artistically and creatively.
This program equips students with the professional sociocultural knowledge needed for art and design instruction. Moreover, in partnership with its school partners and museum partners, it provides students with an initial teaching experience in various professional sectors. And although it is not a teaching and training degree in and of itself, it does prepare you for the MA in Art Education that follows.
If you are more into Fine Arts, you should definitely consider this program as it recognizes the many different artistic possibilities as well as the many different social situations in which art can be found, and it allows students to construct their own unique study profile.
This program is founded on the students’ individual and group responses to artistic works. Students engage in ongoing discussions with professional artists, which help clarify, deepen, and develop artistic questions and promote this underlying knowledge through meetings, seminars, and courses while emphasizing the significance of oral and written reflections in the creative process.
University of Lausanne
The Faculte Of Arts, dating from 1837, is one of the University of Lausanne’s largest schools, with over 2,000 students representing over 80 different nationalities. Philosophy, history, current and classical languages, archaeology, and art history are among the traditional fields offered. Courses like cinema history and aesthetics, information systems for social sciences, linguistics, history, and religious sciences, are also taught and contribute to expanding human knowledge.
The Faculty of Arts offers education geared at rendering the wealth of previous intellectual work understandable and addressing the concerns of present realities, including over 4,560 feasible solutions available at the Master’s level. Because the study of the Arts is intrinsically multi- and interdisciplinary, it also allows students to take on self initiatives, a sense of social responsibility, organization, and the capacity to summarize and present complex material, written and oral communication competency, and variety.
University of St. Gallen
The University of St. Gallen in Switzerland is a public research university established in 1898. It is not simply a university; it is a place that inspires students and develops their critical thinking skills.
The School for Design St. Gallen, which includes a higher technical school for Arts and Design, is a division of the St. Gallen Commercial Vocational and Further Education Center and is Eastern Switzerland’s most traditional and valuable academic institution for basic and advanced design training.
Students at this university will acquire knowledge of great practical relevance and gain valuable insights that will allow them to make valuable contributions to their own personal development and social and economic progress.
University of Fribourg
Doctoral training in French and German is available through the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Fribourg. The field of study sits at the intersection of several disciplines such as anthropology, history, theology, semiotics, philosophy, and literature.
In its broadest definition, Art History encompasses pieces of art from Ancient History to the present day and includes Historic Architecture and Visual Studies, among other things. It delves into the complexities of their functioning and values (culturally, historically, aesthetically, cult-wise, economically, and socially).
The department’s goal with this Ph.D. program is to generate, advance, and communicate scientific knowledge in order to stimulate innovation. The doctorate involves the formulation and public defense of in-depth research work, conducted in close collaboration between the doctoral student and the thesis supervisor (or co-supervisor).
University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland aspires to be a leading vocational, interdisciplinary, creative, and Latin-culture university in Switzerland, as well as a network-creation leader in academic, corporate, and political-institutional contexts.
SUPSI’s vision focuses on building partnerships with local partners and maximizing the value of its respectable position in the national and worldwide academic community. This feature is critical for emphasizing the university’s status as a vocational university, notable for its ability to build collaborative networks and provide vocational education, applied research, and services in various ways, each structured to meet the unique needs of every topic matter and professional relevance.
Its program comprises Bachelor in Conservation, Bachelor in Architecture, Bachelor in Music, Bachelor in Music and Movement, Bachelor in Theater, and Bachelor in Visual Communication.
Bottom Line
Now that you have narrowed down your choices, it is time to thoroughly read the opportunities and programs from every university and decide on your studies. Keep your future career goals in mind, as it will help you make the right decision. And, no matter the choice, always enjoy and get the best out of it.
